Sutton's Crime Prevention Team this week issued renewed advice to bank and building society customers taking out cash from ATM machines.

This follows an incident on the 7th July at around 12 noon when a female customer lost a total of £1,300 from her account after she tried to take out cash from the ATM outside the branch of the Abbey, London Road, Cheam. The woman was duped by a man standing close by who said the machine wasn't working properly and wouldn't return her card. When the customer returned to the machine after going inside the branch to speak to a member of staff, the man had gone and had somehow managed to obtain the customer’s PIN.

She found that a total of £1,300 had been taken from her account - some of it taken from an ATM and some from individual shops/stores.

There have been three other instances of similar scams in the local area reported to Sutton Police since the 1st April 2009. In two cases, the customer was distracted whilst using an ATM. The other case may have involved a device being fitted to an ATM which retained the customer’s card.

Sutton Police advise bank and building society customers to:

oMake your withdrawals from an ATM inside the branch or from the branch counter, rather than outside in the street

oLook closely at the ATM to see if it looks different or has been tampered with in any way